I used to edit Innovation Management. My book, "The Elastic Enterprise", co-authored with Nick Vitalari and described as a must read for companies that want to succeed in the new era of business - looks at how stellar companies have gone beyond innovation to a new form of wealth creation. I speak on new innovation paradigms.
I started my writing career in broadcasting and then got involved in the EU's attempt to create an ARPA-type unit, where I managed downstream satellite application pilots, at just the time commercial satellite services entered the market. I also wrote policy, pre the Web, on broadband applications, 3G (before it was invented), and Wired Cities.
I have written for many major outlets like the Wall St Journal, Times, HBR, and GigaOm, as well as producing TV for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. I am a research fellow at the Center For Digital Transformation at UC Irvine, where I am also an advisory board member, advisory board member at Crowdsourcing.org and Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.
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How to Be a Social Media Power Influencer (And Why!)

Last week, in writing about the top social media influencers I was struck by the sheer scale of connectivity that leading influencers create for themselves. Chris Brogan for example has an astonishing 122,000 identifiable followers on Twitter (up from 115,000 last week) and strong followings on LinkedIn,Facebook, and Google + where he has almost 67,000 followers. 60,000 people subscribe to Mari Smith’s public updates on Facebook, along with approximately 77,000 identifiable people who follow her on Twitter.

Two things are remarkable about the numbers.

The first is the scale. Chris Brogan has a pull or reach that is over 3,000 times more powerful than that of the average Twitter user. Mari’s reach (or social pull) is 1800 times greater than the average Twitter user’s.

The second is the fact that we can identify those 122,000 people through tools like PeekYou analytics. In building a web of identifiable people we’re also moving the point of connection in business from the corporation to the person and creating more opportunities for a more individual form of captialism where the person, the networked power of the individual, is the new capital (for a discussion of numbers see Why Numbers Matter).

To get a better handle on that I asked three of the social media power influencers about their network building and what it means to their businesses to have strong social media influence.

Jason is exceptional in having a very large average network size (13,000). That means the average network size of each of his followers is 13,000. Mari – with a much larger following – has an average network size of 11,000. Pam Moore with an identifiable following of around 41,000 has a reach, or social pull, approaching 1600, that is 1600 times the average Twitter user.

Q: I wanted to know when they decided that this was a goal for them – to grow a powerful network:

Jason Falls

My focus on networking for business purposes began in earnest in late 2005 and early 2006. I was transitioning out of a niche area of public relations into mainstream marketing and PR, and social media was beginning to percolate as a subject in the broad marketing world. I’d used social media (blogging and social network platforms in particular) for personal reasons for a long time and knew my way around.

As I began to add professional contacts in the mainstream world, my network began to grow. It wasn’t until late 2007, early 2008, however, that I started speaking at conferences and focusing my networking on influencers. That’s when I went from 1,000 social contacts to 5K, 10K, etc. At BlogWorld & New Media Expo in the fall of 2007, I decided to target the power players, get introduced, ensure they knew who I was and I was working with brands and knew a thing or two. Every bit of my networking since has been targeted and purposeful.

Mari Smith

I joined Twitter in September 2007; I was already active on Facebook about four months prior to that. At the time, I was running my business fulltime from the road, traveling the U.S. in an RV. I would share all manner of photos from my various travels and my network began to grow from there — people would tune in to find out which city I was in and what activities I was enjoying. I kept my growth milestones moderate at first, growing to my first 1,000 followers, then 2,000 and so on. I was never aggressive in pursuing followers, but I was proactive.

Q: I asked what are they are most focused on?

Pam Moore:

I don’t like to focus on one network over the other. Instead I like to focus on an integrated strategy that leverages content to connect with audiences with a goal of meeting both life and business objectives.

How I use each of the following:

Blog: Provide the best possible content I can to inspire and connect with target audiences.

Twitter: Enables me to reach a large network of folks who enjoy and share my content with their friends. Also enables me to build communities that are taken offline and on to other social networks for further nurturing.

LinkedIn: Where people validate what I do, what I have done and who I am.

Facebook: Enables me to more intimately connect with people via my personal Facebook page, business page and private groups.

YouTube: Similar to my blog but in video format. It was a key success contributor while in startup mode.

Google+: Similar to all of the above but enables me to connect with my most favorite, geeky friends.

I get the highest number of qualified leads from LinkedIn. However, I have also received hot leads via Twitter DM and Facebook messages. I have been a member of LinkedIn for many years. I have a network size of 1700+ and know most all of the people I am connected to. I have over 50 recommendations from current and past colleagues and clients. The growth of this network has been 100% organic and a spill over from past employers, other social networks and life!

TweetChats: I host #GetRealChat on Tuesday 9pm ET. We average 12-18 million impressions for a single TweetChat. The community has grown substantially since January. We have had many guests including AT&T, Argyle Software, Klout, Webtrends, Kred, EmpireAvenue and many more. It enables me to connect with brands as well as give back to the community who has helped me. I have seen people join the tweet chat not knowing how to do a retweet. Many of these same people are now leading communities, quitting their corporate gigs to pursue a life of their dreams.

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Mr. Shaughnessy, I think the reality of social networking allows for only one goal, connections for influence, online muses. People talk about real connections, people can barely make real connections offline, the role is influence peddling, regardless of any other intent.

And yet, and still, no one in my family (and I have a big family). no one in my immediate community, and none of my lifelong friends would have a clue…. Chris who? Mari who? There is a tendency in the “social media” jet set to believe the hype. Get over it. The “influencers” in social media are only influencing those interested in social media, and then that’s questionable at times. That does nothing for a brand trying to build a consumer community online. Influence is only as strong as the community that comes with it. We’re not talking about celebrities here.

What are you asking people to “get over”? By influencing other people in social media these large network owners influence many tens of thosuands of people in those outer circles. They migh tnot reach your family but they reach as big an audience as many magazines do, which is quite amazing.

I’m of two minds, thinkingthoughts (nice handle, btw.) I have paid some attention to various metrics and I give them with a large caveat to clients who themselves know little of social media. I don’t believe I am “influential” because Klout or anyone else says I am. I am thrilled when independently readers or students or editors and publishers tell me they find my writing persuasive, influential and entertaining. When the emerging metrics are given context and validation, I think it tells us that this is yet another channel through which people connect. It’s certainly not the only one, but you ignore it at your peril, I think. I’ve ranted and mused about social media use and mis-use on my blog, you might be interested to read how I see the missed opportunities in its use. Jacqueline Church [dot] com

You echo my thoughts. Much social media hype reminds me of hippies caught in a permanent navel stare. Loads of introspection and reflection and not much of anything new.

I’ll read someone’s thoughts if they are providing value add in a specific area of expertise; for me it would be Speech Recognition, BMW performance tuning and sailing. What I see all too often in “social media” is discussion about……social media.

And what much of that social media discussion circles around is building brands. Either personal or corporate. Pretty much Adweek but more boring.

I made a lot fun of Tweeters on Twitter acting like Tweakers, so I created an account and followed several social media mavens, several celebrities and even a few brands. After two weeks, I decided that competitive paint drying would hold much more excitement.

I will admit that I like much of what I see on Google+, lots of amazing photography, computer geek-speak and funny comments. But I spend less than 10 mins/day on it and don’t really care if I don’t login for days at a time.

I’ve never had a Facebook account and never wanted one. I use LinkedIn for the groups around a couple of key technologies, and that’s the extent of social media for me.

Funny how the headhunters keep calling, my compensation keeps rising and my reputation is very high in my area of expertise. And some say it isn’t possible without 100,000 followers on Twitter, waiting with bated breath for my next 140 character pearl of wisdom.

The best influence example of Social Media is Charlie Sheen and Twitter. Sure, he helped them grow like mad, but how many of those tweaking Tweeters aren’t slightly mad? He can influence many, but are they anyone that you care to be in regular contact with? Not I…..

Well I’m not strong on Twitter either but the way Pam and Mari use it strike me as being of huge value – they are not retweeting, they are conferencing. Sounds to me you are following the wrong examples.

ldgourmet – I am with you on this one too. I find the most value and joy from people who have changed their life, implemented change in their biz that resulted in efficiences they learn from me. The emails I receive thanking me for helping them land a job, get a promotion or feed their family are what matters most.

I think the key is that social media is leveraged to support business objectives. As I always say, “doing social media” is not the objective. Instead it’s a focus on how you can leverage social media to achieve life and business goals.

I am also a big fan of the Altimeter metrics pyramid which we use a lot with clients. It’s important to segment the different data points correctly as we work with different stakeholders within an organization.

Interesting term you used Haydn, “conferencing”. I never thought of it that way, but when tweeting with a highly engaged audience for a specific time period it is very much like a conference.

I can usually tell the mood of my engaged followers within 5 minutes of being on Twitter. It’s usually pretty easy to tell if they are wanting fed with biz information, inspiration or just conversation.

I am open to new “branding” concepts, and truthfully, the social media world evolves daily. Charlie Sheen, really? Most of us live in the real world and we are trying to optimize SEO, key word searches, personal branding, etc. This is not about Hollywood, a.k.a., Charlie Sheen, it is about real-time business world evolving daily. Do you know what a QR code is, by chance?